flight

Quadrocopters are pretty cool -- there's no doubt about that, but a student at ETH Zurich's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Controls has taken it to a completely new level. Dario Brescianini programmed two small quadrocopters to perform stunts and balance poles, as well as toss poles to one another without a hitch.

After the recent fiasco with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliners and their melting lithium-ion batteries, it seems that Airbus won't be taking any chances and will be dropping lithium-ion batteries when building their new A350 aircraft. The airplane manufacturer is afraid that regulatory uncertainties will delay production of its new plane.

It's been quite a dramatic beginning for the 787 Dreamliner, probably one that Boeing and the airlines weren't hoping for, but reoccurring failures to the lithium-ion batteries in several 787 aircrafts resulted in the entire fleet getting ground in order to investigate the issue. However, after a few weeks of investigating and troubleshooting, Boeing has completed its first flight of the 787 following the grounding.

After the FAA decided to ground all Boeing 787 Dreamliners last month, a massive investigation began to determine the cause of the battery failures inside the new planes. It turns out that the batteries were overheating and literally melting. However, in order to get all 50 Dreamliners back up in the air, Boeing will be redesigning the battery as a temporary fix.

Boeing and the FAA ended up grounding all of its 787 Dreamliners last month due to multiple reports of battery failures. Both US-based and international airlines ended up grounding the entire 787 fleet in order to get to the bottom of the issue, and while investigators are making progress into the failed battery problems, they say that there's no rush and no pressure to get it done as soon as possible.

Today American Airlines announced and unveiled their first new look since 1968. And to catch up with modern times, CEO Tom Horton says that the new livery is meant to be light, vibrant, and modern. The airline is also making some strides in implementing more technology into their workflow, like outfitting pilots and flight attendants with tablets and smartphones.

It felt like only a matter of time, and now it's reality. After numerous problems occurring with multiple Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has decided to ground all 787s in the US for inspection, but plans to get all of the new planes back in the air as safely and as quickly as possible.

Before an airplane that's equipped with WiFi can be used for public service, it must undergo intense testing and evaluations first. Boeing, specifically, has an interesting way of going about that. Instead of hiring 100 or so people to act as passengers on a flight, Boeing rounds up 20,000 of potatoes to simulate the effects of human bodies on a plane.

The term "unmanned aerial drone" might strike a bit of fear into your heart when you see the live tracking map of the USA that's been made available this week by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but not to worry - not all of them are flying overhead right this minute. Instead this is a map that's the result of the EEF's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that covers the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)'s full knowledge of unmanned flights across the United States and what you're looking at is a tracking of project licenses rather than actually flying objects. That said, this map is exciting in its coverage for our greater understanding of unmanned drone flight projects as initiated by state and local law agencies, universities, and US Military operations.